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| Pro-Terror Comments Get Ex-Chaplain Banned From Prisons |
| 2003-02-06 |
| New York state has banned its prison system's one-time head Islamic chaplain from further prison visits after a published report quoted him as saying even Muslims opposed to terrorism "admire and applaud" the Sept. 11th terrorists. Warith Deen Umar, 58, who retired from his $67,919-a-year prison job in 2000, won't be allowed in the system he has tried to visit at least three or four times, state prisons spokesman James Flateau said Thursday. "The comments that he has made since leaving our employ are nothing short of reprehensible, disgusting and rejected by virtually all Americans regardless of race, creed or color," Flateau said. "There is no room in this prison system for anyone who expresses those kinds of viewpoints. So yesterday, the commissioner [Glenn Goord] ordered that he be barred from ever entering a correctional facility again for any purposes." Umar's comments were reported in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal. Umar was quoted as saying the United States risks further attacks because it oppresses Muslims around the world. "Even Muslims who say they are against terrorism secretly admire and applaud" the World Trade Center's destruction, the Journal reported, quoting an unpublished memoir written by Umar. Through a spokeswoman at his home in Glenmont, Albany County, Umar declined immediate comment. Umar told the Journal that the Koran holy book doesn't condemn terrorism against oppressors of Muslims, even if it results in the deaths of innocent people. "This is the sort of teaching they don't want in prison," the Journal reported Umar saying. "But this is what I'm doing." The New York Post first reported Umar's ban from prisons in Thursday's editions. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the state has tried to fire two other imams or Islamic prayer leaders for pro-terrorist comments, Flateau said. One was dismissed and another imam appealed and was instead suspended for 90 days then retired shortly after. In March, chaplain Sufwan El Hadi was fired for comments to inmates and staff at the Cape Vincent Correctional Facility on Sept. 11, 2001. The imam appeared to suggest that sins by the victims caused the attacks. His dismissal was upheld by an arbiter. "We are not going to put up with insensitive comments or racist remarks from anyone," Flateau said. When Umar retired after 25 years on the state payroll, the state Department of Correctional Services changed the process of hiring Islamic prayer leaders. Previously, Umar hired them through an Islamic organization he ran from his home. Now Islamic leaders from several centers statewide have a hand in hiring, Flateau said. There are now 40 Muslim chaplains on the state payroll in the prison system serving 9,862 Muslim inmates, or about 15 percent of the prison population. Many of them were hired by Umar, but Flateau said no action is being taken against those chaplains and no special monitoring of their activities will occur. Flateau said it would be a "dangerous philosophy" to assume they shared Umar's "extremist views." And I think it's dangerous to assume that they don't. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 When Umar retired after 25 years on the state payroll, the state Department of Correctional Services changed the process of hiring Islamic prayer leaders. Previously, Umar hired them through an Islamic organization he ran from his home. A Muslim hackmaster in charge of handing out state jobs. Nice racket, like a Muslim Tammany Hall... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-02-06 16:02:32 |